Wash through the Word

Today’s Gospel Text:  Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. 5 Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. 6 He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" 7 Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand." 8 Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part in me." 9 Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" 10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not every one of you." 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, "You are not all clean."

12 When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. John 13:1-15

Reflection: “……… having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (vs. 1)

Having loved them; referring to his disciples whom he loved but how did he love them to the end.

Is it the immediate end or the future end? Yet we know that the moment was the foot washing ceremony of Jesus when he washed the feet of his Disciples.

Since it was still a way away from the end then how can the gospel claim that he loved them to the end?

Unless the gospel of John is suggesting that that moment was the end towards a new beginning: a moment when one meets the cleansing power of the word in order to make a new beginning. 

What was the moment? It was the moment of the foot washing, liturgically practiced by the priest, not just at Maundy Thursday, which is a purely symbolic action but practiced at every Eucharistic celebration.

   

You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. John 15:3

A priest through his faithful preaching of the word of God, and not by his preaching of his secular learning’s or his personal opinions, faithfully carries on the mandate of Christ to wash his people where they need to be washed more and what they need to be washed of.

When one only looks at this symbolic action of Jesus and keeps practicing the symbolic action opportunistically and make demand for an inclusive action then one is being self-conceited and does not understand the truth of the gospel. 

From this primary action flow all other actions of service towards the brotherhood of Christ: "Do you know what I have done to you?  You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. John 13:12-15

   

St. Paul practiced it when he asserts: “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” 1 Cor 9:22

    

And to us he exhorts: “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Gal 6:2

Prayer: God our Father, may we humbly learn from the example of Christ and we ask you to bless the priests of your vineyard as they carry on the mission with faithfulness to your word

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